DRILLING DOWN: Allowing God’s word to percolate within us.
Percolation does not happen by itself. I grind coffee nearly every morning. I put freshly ground beans into a screen basket and place it inside the coffee maker. Then I add about 6 cups of water, close the top and turn on the heat with an “ON” switch. The hot water begins to travel to the top of the basket and filter down through the ground up beans flavoring the water as it fills the glass container.
Inside the walls of Jericho was a prostitute named Rahab. Conversation inside Jericho had been building some time about a murderer who returned to free his people from Egypt named Moses. The Israelites had become a nation of slaves but through the use of miracles Moses and his God had taken a whole nation of people across the desert and were heading their way. They knew about the Egyptian soldiers drowned in the Red Sea during their pursuit to re-capture their slaves. Terror was intense in Jericho.
Rahab was a Drill Down person! She heard fear in men who shared their stories with her. She believed in the God of Moses. She grounded the beans of truth and put them in her filter basket. The Holy Spirit showed her how to turn the power switch “ON”. She did. The stories continued as she intently listened about the travels of the Israelites who were on the other side of the Jordan River getting closer to Jericho. Her percolation was in process. She was ready when two strangers visited who just happened to be from the Israeli camp across the river.
The spies reported Rahab’s intel and their escape. The time had come for Joshua to lead the people into the land and possess it. Two million people moved across the Jordan and made camp on the Jericho side of the Jordan.
Years later Isaiah would write about God,
For your thoughts are not my thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways and my
thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:8-9
Manna from heaven would cease after Israel crossed the Jordan. This new generation of Israelites, born after leaving Egypt, was about to learn about Elohim, Jehovah and Adonai. Learning the meaning of God’s names was one thing but this new generation was going to experience God’s sovereignty, His magnificence and absolute righteousness. And the lessons were about to begin.
They built an alter with twelve uncut stones from the Jordan River as a memorial and all the men were circumcised. They remained at Gilgal while they healed and “kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month in the evening on the plains of Jericho.”
They began eating off the land they were now possessing. Preparation was more than proscribed tasks, it was doing the Word of the Lord.
Before experiencing God’s blessings they were to observe His word. God had given Joshua clear instructions concerning the word given to them through their fathers and Moses.
“This book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but thou shall meditate on it from day to night, so that you may be careful to do all that is written in it, for then you will make your way prosperous and all that you do will prosper.”
– Joshua 1:8
God’s grace was already in place and they were standing in it (Romans 5). They merely J had to submit to God’s ownership to participate in His blessing.
Jericho was the first fruits of God’s blessing to the Israelites. God had established the rule that He was to receive the initial portion of the harvest.
“And the city and all that is within it shall be devoted to the Lord for destruction. Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall live, because she hid the messengers whom we sent. But you, keep yourselves from the things devoted to destruction, lest when you have devoted them you take any of the devoted things and make the camp of Israel a thing for destruction and bring trouble upon it. But all silver and gold, and every vessel of bronze and iron, are holy unto the Lord; they shall go into the treasury of the Lord.” – Joshua 6:17-20
Jericho was not only God’s portion of His blessing to His people, it was also set aside as a memorial to His name. Listen to the words of Joshua to the people:
“Cursed before the Lord be the man who rises up and rebuilds this city, Jericho.
‘At the cost of his first born shall he lay its foundation, and
at the cost of his youngest son shall he set up its gates.’”
- Joshua 6:26b
The law had clearly been established. God affirmed Joshua He was with Him just as Moses. He could take that to the bank! “Have not I commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” God gave specific instructions about taking the city in seven days but He also made it clear He was the One to be honored in victory.
Before Joshua took the city he went to survey the site and was confronted by an armed soldier.
“Are you for us, or for our adversaries?” Joshua asked.
”No; but I am the commander of the army of the Lord. Now I have come.”
Joshua worshipfully falls to the earth and replies, “What does my Lord say to his servant?”
“Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.”
Joshua did!
God was making it clear He was in charge and taking ownership.
The historical account of Israel’s history at Jericho is rich with spiritual truths. We will consider two of them, one this week and one as we continue our journey next week with Israel to Ai.
Jericho is dead in its sin. But there is hope. Rahab believes God and in faith demonstrates her belief by providing refuge and escape for God’s people. If you look at the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew you find Rahab through the line of Joseph, Mary’s husband. You will find Rahab married Salmon who was the father of Boaz of the tribe of Judah. You will recognize Boaz to be the same man who married Ruth in the book of Ruth. How beautiful is that!
Ownership! Who owns the gold, sliver, bronze and iron in Jericho? The people of Jericho had possession of it while they lived but who really owned it? “For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the hills, and all that moves in the field is mine.” – Ps. 50:10-11.
A Hebrew word for God which speaks to His ownership is Adonai. This Hebrew word speaks to God’s role of both ownership and responsibility for what is owned. This word translated Lord conveys God’s relationship to everything He has made and created. He owns it and takes full responsibility for it and us as the case may be.
God took out of Jericho what had value to His people for His own treasury. He was establishing His ownership by taking for His treasury what they would take for themselves. God already owned it and could replace it by the word of His mouth but He was establishing the terms of His relationship with His people.
God’s ways are not our ways. His thoughts are not the same as ours. But He chooses to covey who He is through things we understand. Spiritual things are beyond the capacity of created people to comprehend unless God Himself reveals them to us. The things of God knoweth no man, it is God’s Spirit that reveals them to us, 1 Corinthians 2:10. God’s ways are unsearchable while man’s ways are dependent upon reason and intellect. Our created capacity allows us to see and know about God but to know HIM requires His revelation of Himself.
If it is up to Him and not to us, why Drill down? There are several reasons. It is a measure of our love to Him. It is what we are commanded to do. It is how we gain grace, faith and knowledge of Christ.
God gives us a spiritual organ to receive and understand the things of God when we are born again. Development of this spiritual organ depends upon spiritual exercise. God has placed a seed of His life within us to nurture and cultivate. But its container is natural, worldly and prone to sin, our body.
He has given us His own resurrection life made possible by God coming to earth as deity in the flesh. Jesus was God in the flesh. The life He provides escapes judgment of fire but He himself is fire and will purge what we do. He is the treasure within us sanctified to glorify Himself. We can participate within this body of sin by submitting to His ownership. The effect will be putting to death sin in our flesh through His work. This is what we are called to do. This is what Romans 5 through 8 is all about.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” – 2Corinthians 5:17.
“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who live in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:20.
Having the capacity to know God does not guarantee we enter into His intimacy even though we have access and are sealed with His Spirit. Only Peter, James and John were invited to go with Jesus to witness His transfiguration in the presence of Elijah and Moses. If you want to be called into that intimacy we need to purify our soul so that the Spirit Has the freedom to reveal Himself. He will, if we do!
Drilling Down are first steps toward His intimacy. The children of Israel are entering into a relationship with God demonstrating our dependency is in Him and not in ourselves. If we attempt to do what God has called us to do and there is sin “in the camp” we will be disciplined. God requires us to confront and deal with our issues before He offers His grace and forgiveness.
“I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children” – Matt 11:25
Next week we will discuss “salted with fire” in Ai, Mark 9:49.